US presidential debate: Obama, Romney best quotes

Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama sparred on issues from Russia to Iraq in the third and final presidential debate Monday in Boca Raton, Fla. Here are some of their most memorable lines:

On Al Qaeda:

Romney: “I congratulate him on taking out Osama bin Laden and going after the leadership in Al Qaeda, but we can’t kill our way out of this mess.

Obama: “Gov. Romney, I’m glad that you agreed that we have been successful in going after Al Qaeda, but I have to tell you that your strategy previously has been one that has been all over the map and is not designed to keep Americans safe or to build on the opportunities that exist in the middle east.”

On Israel:

Romney: “Mr. President, the reason I call it an apology tour is because you went to the Middle East, and you flew to Egypt and to Saudi Arabia and to Turkey and Iraq. And by the way, you skipped Israel, our closest friend in the region. And by the way, they noticed that you skipped Israel.”

Obama: “When I went to Israel as a candidate, I didn’t take donors. I didn’t attend fundraisers. I went to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum there to remind myself of the nature of evil and why our bond with Israel would be unbreakable.”

On Afghanistan and Iraq:

Romney: “We don’t want another Iraq. We don’t want another Afghanistan. That’s not the right course for us.”

Obama: “You say that you’re not interested in duplicating what happened in Iraq, but just a few weeks ago you said you think we should have more troops in Iraq right now. You’ve said that first we should not have a timeline in Afghanistan then you said we should. Now you say maybe or depends, which means not only were you wrong, but you were also confusing and sending mixed messages both to our troops and our allies.”

On Russia:

Romney: “I have clear eyes on this. I’m not going to wear rose-colored glasses when it comes to Russia or Mr. Putin and I’m certainly not going to say to him, ‘I’ll give you more flexibility after the election.’ After the election, he’ll get more backbone.”

Obama: “Gov. Romney, I’m glad that you recognize that Al Qaeda is a threat because a few months ago when you asked what’s the biggest geopolitical threat facing America, you said Russia – not Al Qaeda – you said Russia. The 1980s are now calling and asking for their foreign policy back.”

On Iran:

Romney: “I would also make sure that their diplomats are treated like the pariahs they are around the world, the same way we treated the apartheid diplomats of South Africa. We need to increase pressure time and time again on Iran because anything other than a solution to this which stops this nuclear folly of theirs, is unacceptable to America. And of course, a military action is the last resort.”

Obama: “A nuclear Iran is a threat to our national security and it’s a threat to Israel ‘s national security. We cannot afford to have a nuclear arms race in the most volatile region in the world.”

On China:

Romney: “I want a great relationship with China. China can be our partner, but that doesn’t mean that they can just roll all over us and steal are jobs on an unfair basis.”

Obama: “Well Gov. Romney is right, you are familiar with jobs being shipped overseas because you invested in companies that were shipping jobs overseas.”

On military spending:

Romney: “We get to a balanced budget within eight to 10 years. We do it by reducing spending in a whole series of programs. By the way, number one I get rid of is Obamacare.”

Obama: “You mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military’s changed. We have these things called aircraft carriers, where planes land on them. We have ships going underwater, nuclear submarines. And so the question is not a game of battleship where we’re counting ships but what our capabilities are.”

On Syria:

Romney: “This is a critical opportunity for America. And what I’m afraid of is we’ve watched over the past year or so, first the president saying, ‘Well we’ll let the U.N. deal with it.’”

Obama: “What we can’t do is to simply suggest that, as Gov. Romney at times has suggested, that giving heavy weapons, for example, to the Syrian opposition is a simple proposition that would lead us to be safer over the long term.”

On shifting from foreign to domestic policy:

Romney: “The president mentioned the auto industry and that somehow I would be favor of jobs being elsewhere. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am a son of Detroit. I was born in Detroit. My dad was head of a car company. I like American cars. And I would do nothing to hurt the U.S. auto industry.”

Obama: “Governor, you say you want a bigger military. You want a bigger Navy. You don’t want to cut defense spending. What I want to ask you — we were talking about financial problems in this country. Where are you going to get the money?”

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